Share this:

HBO’s “Game of Thrones” took the dubious top honor with 4.28 million illegal downloads on BitTorrent for a single episode. Last year’s No. 1 draw, “Dexter,” fell to second place in 2012 with 3.85 million downloads.

TorrentFreak cites international restrictions, delays and unavailability online as the primary reason viewers turn to piracy, noting that more than 80 percent of the illegal downloads occur outside the United States.

“Homeland,” which airs after “Dexter” on Showtime, is the only other premium cable series in the pirated Top 10 list. “Breaking Bad” and “The Walking Dead” from AMC — which was briefly dumped by the Dish network — are the only basic cable entries.